making contact sheets with a photocopier?

I am looking for a simple way to make contact sheets from black and

white negatives. I have a very good, but VERY SLOW film scanner, but

it is too slow to scan all the negatives to decide which ones to keep

and work on. I was wondering if any photocopiers available in printing

shops can photocopy an archival page containing b & w negatives and

make reasonable quality contact sheets. Has any one done this? Can

most photocopiers do this? I will hunt around this week, but any

experiences would be interesting.

I forgot to specify in my previous post - I mean I want the photocopy to make a positive image from my b & w negatives. I don't know if it is common for photocopiers to give this option.

The "simple way" to make contact sheets is via contact printing on black and white paper, of course (no enlarger req'd, even).

 

On the copier- give it a shot and report back to us. I suspect it won't work, because copiers in general are set up to copy from reflective surfaces, not by transmission. Some of them make pretty decent copies of photographs, but I suspect would hardly get a recognizable copy off a negative.

 

Another idea is the photo developing machines that can make the index prints. They aren't set up for B&W film, but could probably do it- just would depend on if they WOULD or not. Of course, you could use C41 process film and just have them process it in the first place.

Our digital color copier at our print shop will reverse the image; ie black to white; and white to black; in greyscale. <BR><BR>The main problem is that there is no light source going thru the negatives; thus it wont work.<BR><BR> It is like trying to scan negatives with a flatbed scanner; with no transparency adapter; ie no top light. Our Color copier actually works as a digital scanner; and appears in photoshop as a scan device. It scans 11x17 at 600 dpi in color; but the bit depth is ancient 6 bits!.

Those cute little "index prints" from the One Hour aren't printed normally ~ they have scan lines like a TV set! Magnify them with an 8X loupe and about all you see clearly are the lines! All you need is a sheet of glass, a safelight and a few trays and you're set for making contact sheets at home. You can expose by flipping a light on and off.

Many Color copiers have an extra accessory that allows 35mm slides to be printed. We had one back in the mid 1980's; but it got little usage. The accessory is a projector that projects the slide on to the copier glass; with the copiers scanner halogen bulb disabled. The thing only works well if all the room lights are almost off. One could use one of these rigs; and invert the image. Most copy shops dont have these adapters; and few really know how to use them well.<BR><br>Contact printing is the best way to get a good contact print.<BR><BR>Another quick and dirty way is to use an epson 2450 Photo scanner; and make a homemade aperture for 4x9"; PLUS the extra slot at the start position. The extra slot is required by software. One can scan in 3 negative strips at once; but I dont always think I have my method optimized!

i thint=k the epson 1600 pro or 1680 pro can accept 6 strips on the flat panel...but its costly abt 1000 +

You don't specify which scanner you have, but, if it's compatable, Vuescan http://www.hamrick.com can assemble a "digital" contact print from low resolution (ie faster) scans at a rate of a neg every minute or less, so a complete 35mm film can be "contacted" in about half an hour. The neat thing about doing this digitally is that each neg is individually assessed, so any over or under-exposed negs are automatically compensated for and don't print dark or light as they would with a conventional contact sheet.

A. Photocopiers in most offices don't make reversals, so your

negs would still be negs

 

B. The light bounces off the film and gives you hot spots or no

spots; so the images aren't much use.

 

C. Contrast is too high, anyway, although some copiers have a

photo setting.

 

Other than that, it works fine.

I've used a digital video camera to look at the negatives on a light table. The camera was set to a "negative effect" mode and connected to a 25" TV. Obviously it doesn't make sense to by a camcorder just for that, but if you already have one it works fine as a poor man's video analyzer :-).

Many camcorders can focus at few cm from the lens surface which is enough to almost fill the video screen with a 35mm frame.

Keith; the 3 color copiers I have owned all will reverse an image. Most better color copiers have alot of settings; like map mode; photo mode; map & text; photo & text; etc...This sets the contrast; and the output.<BR><BR>

I went around and around on this, first thinking about getting a flatbed with an 8x10 transparency area. Finally I decided to go really low tech. For about $35 dollars I bought three flourescent 18 inch lights, a sheet of plexiglass and a sheet of glass. I already had an old enlarger and a clamp to hold my digital camera. I photograph the sheets with a digicam and then invert them in PS, dump the color and tone them. It's not perfect but it works well enough for me. If you have only a few negs you can get really close. Attached is an example of a full sheet.

This may sound like "late" but anyway to contribute, in the BW view of life.

 

Contact sheets why ? To see the shots cheap, to evaluate the exposure also "mostly" !

 

The learning curve for exposure taking is fast and efficient with good contact prints. Why ? Because is one does not have a personnal lab (wet) one will rely on either a pro or cosummer lab or use digital, scan and so on.

 

In the case of labs they will "compensate" exposure whilst running the prints, be that contact or proofs. In the digital side you will "never" know if the neg is well exposed, both the scan software and editing software will get you lost.

 

Running contact with digital, photocopy or and other means will then again give you no guidance as to the control you are getting on the exposue. I run on the theory that is blunt evident "if you don't get it on the negative, you will "never" get it back".

 

So where does this leave us guys who have no darkroom ? Well its simple to make ones own contact prints without enlarger. Here is the procdure :

 

stuff to get :

A 15 watt lamp bulb, with an independant switch.

4 trays, classic for labo for size of prints

Stop watch (you have this for the negatives anyway)

Chemicals, all the same as for films, except the developer

Sheet of glass, same size as your prints

Photo paper grade 2, 8 x 10

Safety light

Bathroom, kitchen, cuboard, cellar...depends on your wife I guess !

Etc...but this is all cheap anyway.

 

Set up the trays etc....

Fix the 15 watt bulb about 1,5 meters above the area you will place the paper.

Place neg, paper, glass....

Run test, strip of film on strip of paper, run 5 sec or 10 sec intervals, regular procedure you will find in any BW cookbook.

 

The aim of this 1st test is to evaluate the light you have with this "enlarger".

 

You will then know the ballmark for exposure setting the bulb in the same place every time.

 

Run test strips each time as with a regular procedure, 5 or 10 sec intervals or whatever your cookbook says...

 

Now back to to the exposure. It is very simple to grab. Use the Black to Black method, this has nothing to do with any racial debate...Just when you look at the test strips chose the exposure that has the black of the neg (sides that are not exposed and thus are clear) that is just as black as the areas of your contact print with "no" film at all; sides, between the negs....

 

Now this is where we leave behind us all the other methods, digital, photocopy....because by chosing this exposure and having a sharp contact (that you will never get with photocopy) you will be evaluating the exposure of you neg. Do not be upset but the exposures we take are often on the underexposed side, and your contacts will look dark. Adjust the exposure of you camera or meter accordingly, see what iso ratting works best is the path to take, this helps understand the 320 for Trix 400 debate.

 

What does this all add upto ? Well making good exposures is the truth of photography, wether one is using Leica, Hasselblad, or multi matrix 3 d Color braketing Nikon....the challenge is there, and once you grab it you will never loose it, like riding bike I guess.

 

Put a well exposed neg into you scanner and you will understand what all this means, you may even think that PS was a waste of money, the best chance are you will be getting great scans avery time, just because the neg is well exposed. Remember that Ansel Adams mastered the zone system to get great prints every time, the digtal era has not changed this yet, made it a tad easier for printing, screen vs darkness !

 

GoodLuck

 

Tim